Serbia's Doklestic, Repic & Gajin has announced a new correspondent office in Montenegro, in cooperation with the four-person Danilo Radulovic Law Firm in Podgorica.

Former Wolf Theiss Poland Co-Managing Partner Ron Given has joined Deloitte Legal as its CE Senior Legal Counsel, responsible for all of the firm’s offices in 19 Central and Eastern European countries.

A recent report found that, in 2018, 72.2% of Montenegrin citizens had online access from home, with Internet access via mobile phones increasingly common as well. In terms of mobile and Internet service, Montenegro is not behind other countries from the region or Europe at large, but digital technologies are used far less in areas such as economy or education. Information technologies are most commonly used for Internet browsing and social network communication, but are rarely used for communication with public administrations, local governments, and other service providers, which indicates the society’s insufficient digital advancement.

Doklestic Repic & Gajin has announced the establishment of Lex Adria, an alliance of independent law firms in the Adriatic region, to provide what the firm calls “seamless and premium legal support across the area.”

Lawyers in Montenegro are talking about the Montenegro Economic Citizenship Program these days, says Vukmirovic Misic Managing Partner Lana Vukmirovic.

Jones Day has advised Societe Generale in connection with the sale of its majority stake in the share capital of Societe Generale Montenegro, a company listed on the Montenegrin Stock Exchange, to OTP Bank Nyrt. Schoenherr advised Societe Generale on matters of Montenegrin law, while CMS advised OTP.

The Government of Montenegro, at the session of February 7, 2019, passed Decision about The Privatization Plan for 2019 which is published in the Official Gazette No. 013/19 of 01, March 2019 and it came into force on 9, April of the same year.

Even though Montenegro, located in Southeastern Europe on the Adriatic Coast and with a population of just over 600 thousand people, is a small country, its vast energy potential has been recognized by numerous international investors and by the Montenegrin Government.

While current affairs seem to be stable in Montenegro, according to Tripkovic & Raicevic Founding Partner Pavle Tripkovic, the recent bankruptcies of Invest Bank of Montenegro and Atlas Bank have alarmed the local banking market.

Law firm members of the SEE Legal Group, acting on behalf of Netlog Logistics, have completed a due diligence analysis of the Intereuropa group of companies, upon the announcement of a banking consortium that it is selling 72% share capital in Intereuropa d.d.

Kinstellar, Shearman & Sterling, and Radonjic Associates have advised Masdar on its acquisition of a 49% share in Krnovo Green Energy from a subsidiary of Akuo Energy. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Karanovic & Partners advised Akuo Energy, while Allen & Overy acted as general counsel for the lenders.

BDK Advokati has advised Montenegro's Industriaimport-Industriaimpex AD on its acquisition of 49% of the registered capital of Serbian pharmaceutical wholesaler Farmalogist d.o.o. from private equity firm Adriatic Fund B.V., and in connection with the Shareholders’ Agreement entered into with the owners of the remaining 51% of the shares. HRLE advised Adriatic, while Bojanovic & Partners advised the owners of 51% of the shares in Farmalogist.

Go2Law has advised Kopernikus Corporation, owned by Srdjan Milovanovic, on its acquisition of TV Prva and TV O2  in Serbia and Montenegro from the Antenna Group. Zivkovic Samardzic, working with EY and Clifford Chance, advised Antenna Group on the sale.

Arcliffe has assisted Yazaki on corporate and labor-related matters related to the company's activity in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Croatia. ODI Law supported Arcliffe in the Adria region countries.

Article 2 of the Montenegrin Law on the Protection of Competition limits the law’s application to acts undertaken within the territory of Montenegro and acts undertaken outside of Montenegro which have as their object or effect the distortion of competition in Montenegro. In practice, however, the Law on the Protection of Competition (the “Law”) seems sometimes to be applied beyond its territorial scope.

Johannes Juranek has been appointed Managing Partner of CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz and will assume the role at the start of the firm's financial year on February 1, 2019.

Things are going well in Montenegro at the moment, according to Komnenic Law Office Managing Partner Milos Komnenic, a function not only of the country’s stable political situation, with the current government elected in November 2016, and President Milo Dukanovic elected in April of this year, but more significantly as the result of the country’s June 2017 entrance into NATO.

BDK Advokati and Kirkland & Ellis have advised BC Partners on its agreement to acquire a majority stake in United Group B.V. from KKR, which retains a substantial minority stake. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and the transaction is subject to relevant regulatory approvals.